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Bill Ferny · 01-13-2003, 06:56 PM

lindil,

Not to be contrary, but I don’t think that the latter writings consisting of the Osanwe-Kenta and the Athrabeth should necessarily be considered the essence of Tolkien’s cosmology, nor should it necessarily be considered as indicating that the essence of Tolkien’s cosmology was Christian (at least in the beginning). Perhaps, they can be considered the essence of his revision, or the fruit of his latter speculations, and as such they can indicate Tolkien’s growing appreciation of the Legendarium’s potential to contain spiritual truth as he saw it. I think it safer to say that the Osanwe-Kenta and the Athrabeth, and perhaps the Laws and Customs among the Eldar (which I’ve never read… I know just throw an apple, I’m used to it) indicates the maturity of Tolkien’s faith life, and his willingness to express that faith life in his literature.

However, its pretty obvious to me that the literature already existed, and it existed independently in conception from the driving forces that inspired these latter works. In fact, I’m inclined to think that given another 50 years, the whole of his initial cosmology would have taken on a very different form based on the speculations that we find in these works, because the existing cosmology would have contained too many logical inconsistencies. I’m sure Tolkien would have eventually provided for a common root of all the races, placed the awakening of the races and their fall prior to the entrance of the Valar and Melkor into the world, and I’m afraid that even the music of the Ainur might have been scraped. In short, if given another 50 years, we very well could have been left with something like Narnia, a clear attempt at biblical allegory.

If this had become the case, I wonder what the implications would have been on the published work, as Kalessin points out. As it stands, The Lord of the Rings flowed from a mythology, inadequate in some regards as viewed by its own author, but a mythology that fuels and fills and fleshes out one of the most believable imaginary worlds ever created. As has been pointed out on many forums, the story in LotR contains enough Christian concepts to induce more than one person to write a book devoted to the subject, all this despite the fact that the mythology in the background is one that had some very non-Christian origins and contains some very non-Christian ideas.

01-13-2003, 06:56 PM	#20
Bill Ferny Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Bree Posts: 390	lindil, Not to be contrary, but I don’t think that the latter writings consisting of the Osanwe-Kenta and the Athrabeth should necessarily be considered the essence of Tolkien’s cosmology, nor should it necessarily be considered as indicating that the essence of Tolkien’s cosmology was Christian (at least in the beginning). Perhaps, they can be considered the essence of his revision, or the fruit of his latter speculations, and as such they can indicate Tolkien’s growing appreciation of the Legendarium’s potential to contain spiritual truth as he saw it. I think it safer to say that the Osanwe-Kenta and the Athrabeth, and perhaps the Laws and Customs among the Eldar (which I’ve never read… I know just throw an apple, I’m used to it) indicates the maturity of Tolkien’s faith life, and his willingness to express that faith life in his literature. However, its pretty obvious to me that the literature already existed, and it existed independently in conception from the driving forces that inspired these latter works. In fact, I’m inclined to think that given another 50 years, the whole of his initial cosmology would have taken on a very different form based on the speculations that we find in these works, because the existing cosmology would have contained too many logical inconsistencies. I’m sure Tolkien would have eventually provided for a common root of all the races, placed the awakening of the races and their fall prior to the entrance of the Valar and Melkor into the world, and I’m afraid that even the music of the Ainur might have been scraped. In short, if given another 50 years, we very well could have been left with something like Narnia, a clear attempt at biblical allegory. If this had become the case, I wonder what the implications would have been on the published work, as Kalessin points out. As it stands, The Lord of the Rings flowed from a mythology, inadequate in some regards as viewed by its own author, but a mythology that fuels and fills and fleshes out one of the most believable imaginary worlds ever created. As has been pointed out on many forums, the story in LotR contains enough Christian concepts to induce more than one person to write a book devoted to the subject, all this despite the fact that the mythology in the background is one that had some very non-Christian origins and contains some very non-Christian ideas. __________________ I prefer Gillaume d’Férny, connoisseur of fine fruit.